BG-41 Grateful Dead, Big Mama Thornton 1966 Fillmore Poster Signed by Wes Wilson, Graded 9.8. ...

Description

BG-41 Grateful Dead, Big Mama Thornton 1966 Fillmore Poster Signed by Wes Wilson, Graded 9.8. First-printing San Francisco concert poster for the Grateful Dead, Big Mama Mae Thornton and Tim Rose playing at the Fillmore Auditorium on Friday & Saturday nights plus a Sunday matinee on December 9-11, 1966. About a week after these shows, the Dead would get their first mention in the national mainstream press, a nice plug in Newsweek magazine, so they were making serious inroads. Known as BG-41 in the Bill Graham numbered series, this poster was signed by its creator, Wes Wilson, and graded a tremendously strong 9.8 Near Mint/Mint by CGC (the Certified Guaranty Company). Measures 14" x 22". COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: Big Mama Thornton will always be known as the originator of "Hound Dog," and got some nice screen time in Austin Butler's Elvis movie. And Tim Rose was a Columbia Records singer-songwriter who had been in The Big Three with Mama Cass years earlier.

It's pretty unusual, though not unprecedented, for Wes Wilson to have put "Hey Joe" on this poster right after Tim Rose's name, cleverly including what look like quotation marks. (He had put the Young Rascals' "Good Lovin'" on BG-24, for example.) Rose appeared as an opening act at the Fillmore on two consecutive weekends, this poster and BG-42, and in both instances designer Wilson included "Hey Joe" by Tim's name. Rose had a regional hit in the Bay Area in 1966 with his slow, serious take, as opposed to the Byrds' and the Leaves' uptempo rocking versions. None other than Jimi Hendrix had seen Rose perform his slow rendition at the Café Wha? in New York City and recorded his own similarly down-tempo version, which became a big international hit for Jimi – and alas, not for Rose.


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